Cooking for the Heart
by fanficwriter3000
Summary: Natsu has never had to worry about being injured by fire - never. So what will happen when someone he knows is involved in an accident related to fire? Will he know what to do?


'_I don't even know why I'm cooking this. This recipe is crazy!'_

I, Lucy, am going to burn my house down if I mess up this fire-chicken.

"The only reason I'm doing this is for that crazy fire-eating nut I know and love," I mumbled; turning the heat as high as it would go on the stove, the stoves heat not coming close to the heat on my cheeks. I had tried telling him how I felt, but he did not quite understand it in the way I meant it.

The reason for this cooking endeavor was Natsu. I love the idiot – I have known for a while, and can hide it very well – but I am tired of him eating all my food, so I am going to show him that if he is patient, he can eat much better than if he simply raids my refrigerator. He would be in and out of my fridge in one day, eating food that was supposed to last me at least 3 days.

But it was a lesson for both of us, however, because I have never cooked fire-food before. Heck, I hadn't even seen the recipe before Mirajane gave it to me this very morning. And she had to give that all knowing look before handing it over. I practically had to beg for it. It was downright cruel. It took me three hours to get the recipe out of her, and I had to endure a million questions before she would begin to budge. I was trying to teach Natsu a lesson, not show him what a catch I am. Though the thought had crossed my mind.

I am an okay cook. But I don't measure up to Mira's sister. Lisanna is a great cook. Ever since she got back from Edolas, she has been cooking more than Mira. She spends most of her time in the kitchen cooking new things she learned how to cook without using magic. Quite a few of those dishes have suspiciously involved fire, much to Natsu's enjoyment. And to my discontent.

'_So what's wrong with a little cooking lesson to improve my skills? I'm planning on being a mom one day anyway, so I may as well learn now, right? I can't imagine my kids are going to love eating grilled cheese sandwiches, omelets and spaghetti their whole lives. Plus, it might be a bonus if Natsu sees what a great cook I can be, and that might put me ahead of Lisanna in that department, I hope.' _

"Okay, let's get the chicken in the pan," I called out to no one in particular. The recipe called for a whole chicken, almost burned to a crisp in a pan of oil, and soaked in a white wine for 10 minutes, and then set on fire. I had to ask Cana to get me the wine I needed, because I'm not old enough to buy the darn stuff. So, in reality, I sent her to buy me a bottle, and herself 10. I guess I was being unrealistic to expect change. I sent her with more jewels than I should have. I could have sent someone else – anyone else – but I knew I could ask Cana without her pestering me with questions. And now I had a question-free bottle of wine beside my sink.

'_I haven't even thought about setting it on fire yet. I know that I have to be careful. I'm not Natsu, and I could get seriously burned without taking precautions.'_

But I digress; back to the pan in front of me.

It was cooking well, and just starting to turn black. I grabbed the tongs to turn the chicken over, and in an instant, the oil in the pan caught fire, and I threw my hands up to shield myself from the flame, I heard a huge popping noise, and glass shattering, and my arms began to sear with pain. I stumbled and fell back into a wall – bumping my head – and slid down to the floor.

"Lucy!" Someone said, but I was unconscious before I could register whether I was imagining my name being called or not.

My arms were very uncomfortable, and I think that's what woke me up. I sat up in my bed and looked around. I remember the chicken, and I was cooking, and there was something on fire. Was it Natsu? I looked down at my arms and noticed that they were wrapped poorly. They hurt a lot. _'Did I burn myself?' _I heard the clinking of glassware in the kitchen, so I got up. Well, I tried to get up.

I was on two feet for a moment before my legs decided that I was not ready to be up and around. I fell forward on my hands and knees, and yelped at the pain that was like small dragons dancing around on my arms, breathing fire on me.

"Lucy? Don't move." I looked up to see Natsu walked towards me from the kitchen, mysterious red box in hand. He set the box on my bed, then picked me up and sat me beside it. I couldn't even be happy about him being this close – the pain was distracting. He kneeled down in front of me, and opened the box to reveal a variety of small bottles, vials, wraps, canisters and many other assorted things inside. Each item had, a small flame design, burned into it? I couldn't be sure. It was not really arranged in any order, but Natsu grabbed a few things out and sat them on the floor beside him. He saw me looking at the box questioningly, so he explained.

"These are some things Igneel gave me a long time ago. He told me that there were people in Fiore that could be really hurt by fire. This box is full of stuff that is specifically for healing burns. It might work differently, because it's meant to heal burns I inflict, but it should work the same. Now, hold out your arms. I need to re-wrap them…" He paused, looking down at both my arms, and frowned deeply. "Happy! You call this wrapping her arms? This looks worse than Elfman's wrapping!" On cue, the blue Exceed floated out of the kitchen, fish in hand. My arms hurt too much to be mad when I recognized it from my fridge. That was supposed to be dinner.

"But Natsu, they are wrapped. You can't see any of the burns. Besides, the chicken looks worse then she does." Chicken. I was making fire-chicken for Natsu. Natsu sighed, and gingerly took my left arm and began to unwrap Happy's bandages.

"What happened to you? What were you doing that set your kitchen on fire? You're bloody well lucky I got there when I did, and that I was starving, otherwise your house would be ashes right now." Natsu didn't look at me, but had removed all the bandages from my arm, and I got my first real look at the damage.

Nearly my entire forearm and hand was puckered a dark pink. There were blisters all over, and it looked moist. Natsu opened a small container from the red box, and took three fingers and scooped out a lot of the bright blue salve. He looked up at me.

"You didn't answer my question…" I _couldn't_ answer his question. I was staring at the second-degree burns on my hands and arms. I was paralyzed with shock.

As a way of either distracting me, or just getting on with it, he went about putting the salve in my arm. He hesitated, and looked up at me again – I could not see his face because I was staring at my left arm, but he looked back down to my arm, and started rubbing it over my arms, applying generous amounts, then did my second arm, apologizing every time I winced, hissed, grunted, or whined in pain (In other words, he apologized every two seconds).

I noticed that after he began rubbing the stuff into my arms, they started to go numb, feeling cool and tingly, as Natsu silently worked at fixing up my arms.

After a while, he was finished coating and wrapping both my arms, and then reached for my face. Unconsciously, I leaned forward, until he touched my cheek, and I realized there was a bandage there.

"This might hurt," was all he said, and that statement was more true every second he was this close to me. While I was absorbed in his proximity, he took off the bandage. The quick pain from that snapped me out of it, and I said ouch for the umpteenth time that day. Again, he apologized, and got a small tube from the box.

"This cut was from the glass from what I think was a bottle of alcohol, so I can't do much for it," the tube was the only item from the box with no flame burned onto the outside. He put some of it onto my cheek, and opened a new bandage. He placed it ever so delicately on my face. I could feel my face going red, because I was too tired and hurt to mask it.

He was finished with my injuries then, and everything was haphazardly shoved back into the red box. He placed it on my desk, beside my novel, and sat beside me on the bed. I was finally dizzy with proximity. My hard work of acting that I didn't love him was failing. '_Stupid burns, they're throwing me off my game.'_

"Lucy, do you feel better?" with him this close, nodding was my only way of responding. "Do you remember what happened?" Nod. "Can you tell me?" Nod. He waited for me to tell him, but no words followed my nod. _'He was sitting so close.'_

He paused, not sure what to do, then got up and went to the kitchen. I heard him and Happy talking, but not loud enough so I could hear. I heard my fridge open, however, and was about to shout 'stay out of my fridge!' when Natsu reappeared with a Popsicle in hand. He opened it, and placed it in my right - less burned - hand. I licked the frozen summer food eagerly, my body feeling too warm at the moment, and Natsu went to sit on a chair he dragged over to my bed.

With a Popsicle cooling me down, and Natsu sitting not so close to my face, I could explain what had happened. I left out the unimportant parts, like how I was making this partly because I was jealous of Lisanna, and that I have loved him for a while. But he was psychic today.

"Happy left to get more Popsicles, so if you were not saying anything because he was here, there is no need." He was so mature today. It's weirding me out.

"No, there is nothing else, I'm just freaked out. I wasn't expecting it to catch fire until I added the wine." I mumbled the last part as I finished my popsicle.

"Wine?"

"Yeah… the wine is part of the recipe,"

"What kind of recipe were you making, exactly?"

That question, I didn't want to answer. But he seemed to enjoy pestering me until I finally told him.

"Fire-chicken." His smile faded when I told him that I'd been cooking a food that I knew was his favorite, and that I never ate. His head cocked to the side for a minute, in what I was assuming was consideration. Then his face lit up again.

"You don't have to make Fire-chicken! Mirajane makes it for me, and there are lots of foods here I like that don't need to be set on fire! Plus Lisanna makes it, so I eat too much of it already," He stopped talking, probably because I looked down when he mentioned Lisanna. If she weren't cooking up a storm for him, I wouldn't have been driven to try this! This is all her fault! But I couldn't fully blame her; I was too jealous. _'I admit it'_. And I knew I had to admit how I felt.

"But I want you to eat here," I wasn't sure if he would hear me, talking that quietly. But his hearing was dragon level, so of course he did.

"What do you mean? I eat here lots. With you and Happy," he tilted his head slightly to the left, and I inwardly cringed at how cute it was. "Do you mean you want me to eat here more?"

"I mean I want you to eat here… always"

"I'm not getting it." I sighed. If I could use my hands, I would have shaken the moron. But they simply lay on the bed, lame and useless. So I stood up, and swayed in the direction of the bathroom, but only got two steps because the dragon slayer had spun me to face him, and was gripping my upper arms so I couldn't get away. I looked him right in the eyes. He was being so stupid I just wanted to yell!

"I want you to stay with me always, dammit! I don't want you to ever leave. I want us to eat our meals together, I want you to stay with me until morning, I want you to tell me when something is bothering you, and I want to be able to go to you when something is bothering me. I want us to keep going on missions together, and I want to protect you from things you need protecting from, just like you always protect me. I want us to stay together. I want to cook for you and Happy forever. Even fire-chicken." I paused – apparently I need oxygen – and looked to the floor. "I love you," Okay, when I said yell, I didn't mean to confess also. That just slipped out. My face decided to turn tomato.

"I love you too," My head snapped up at the confession, "And I'm not going anywhere, I love you" My heart leapt, "and Happy and everyone at the guild." And it sank. In my anger, I usually hit him, but hitting him in the chest with bandaged burns just made me shriek in pain. I just looked down. I probably would have sunk into the ground if he were not holding me up.

"You don't get it, Natsu," I looked back up at his face, and he was completely confused. "I love everyone at the guild too, but I love you _more_," If I thought Natsu looked confused before, I was wrong. He looked absolutely lost. So I whispered, to make him listen.

"I want to be allowed to kiss you whenever I want, and hold your hand for the world to see, I want to call you mine, and I want you to call me yours. That's what I mean, when I say that I love you." I wasn't sure how else I could explain it to him. I had tired myself out trying, and my arms were numb. My eyelids felt heavy and I swayed forward, resting my cheek on his chest. I listened to his pounding heartbeat, and before I knew it, the beat of his heart was my lullaby. I fell asleep in his arms within seconds.

In the dark, I felt his arms around me, heating me gently. When I opened my eyes, I could see his collarbone, and feel his chin on my forehead. I sighed happily, and he shifted, awake now.

"Good morning," he mumbled, "please don't hit me". I could feel my heart pounding, and I thought how great this would be if it weren't a dream. I started to tear up as I replied.

"Good morning, Natsu." He looked sad, and wiped a tear from my eye.

"Why are you crying?"

"Because," I sniffled, "I'm sad."

"But why? Isn't this what you wanted?"

"Yah, but I'm dreaming." I said. He seemed to ponder this.

"… If you were dreaming about something you wanted, would you be crying?"

"… … … No," He smiled at me as my brain started working, "I'm not dreaming?" His face lit up. He could be so simple.

"If you never want me to leave you ever again, then I will never leave you again. I didn't realize you felt the same way." He smiled at me. I sat up; wincing because of my still burned arms, and hugged him gently. "You just had to tell me, silly." I sweat-dropped.

"I thought I did," I mumbled. He just laughed. I pulled away and looked at him.

"I suppose you did, I guess I just didn't get it." He laughed more, and helped me out of bed. I winced and whined every time my arms hurt. "Sorry," he went on, "these burns should heal in about 3-4 weeks. Less than that if I keep using the stuff Igneel gave me."

"Is it okay that you keep using that stuff on me? What happens if you run out?" I asked. His face went a little serious for a moment as he looked at me.

"If you were the only person I would ever use the stuff in that red box on, I would be perfectly fine with it."

*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^***3 weeks later***^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*

I was seated on my bathroom countertop with a small red box. A handsome man with pink hair was standing in front of me, slowly unwrapping my arms. I was practically bouncing in anticipation. My arms were healed after the incident with the fire chicken so long ago. I would be bouncing, if Natsu hadn't told me five times already to stop. He was doing it slowly, to tease me, but when I brought it up he just went on and on about being easy on the new skin. _'Worry wart.'_

"Hurry Natsu, you said I could pick a job this afternoon. We'll never get there if you take forever with this." I said, impatiently waiting for him to finish.

"Patience, Lucy. I never imagined you could get this excited when penned up for this long." He smirked. I sat silent for a moment, listening to Happy rummaging my kitchen again.

"Well I would not feel so pent up if you had let me go on missions with you. You know how worried I got when you would leave without me?" I said, looking him in the face. He looked up for a moment, his face serious. He leaned in, and – on this rare occasion – he kissed me. It wasn't long, but it spoke volumes. It said every word that men don't know how to say. Kisses are his communication when his words fail him. I learned that very quickly.

While I was so wrapped up in the aftermath of our 'conversation', he finished unwrapping my arms, and put another layer of moisturizing burn-healing stuff on my arms. I like it, because it made my arms really smooth. Personally, I think Natsu liked it too. He leaned back, and put everything in the box.

There were many fewer items in it than when it was opened on that first day, but I had found some places that sold similar things, so I would take Natsu out to look at them, letting him determine if it worked.

"There, are you content now? It's all done. Now let's go pick out that job." He said, smiling at me. Now, his smiles knock me off my feet. They light up his whole face in a way I never saw before. He helped me off the counter, and I gave him a huge hug, which he returned strongly. I let go, and took his hand, pulling him along all the way to the guild. He had stopped coming in through the window the day he fixed my arms.

When we got there, we were happy. We both smiled, and everyone greeted us with smiles. Lisanna and I don't talk often, but she gave her approval in her way. We picked jobs, traveled together (even on trains, where Natsu would lay his head in my lap), and we were together always. It would be many years before we would take further steps in our relationship, but we were content to explore what we had in the moment. He kissed me everyday, and gave me the occasion peck on the cheek in public, sending my skin tone to the red zone. I finally conveyed how I felt, and he reciprocated. And we would carry on like this for as long as there were stars in the skies. Happy, forever.

"Hey Natsu, do you want fire-chicken for dinner?" I laughed as he furiously denied me access to the ingredients for this. I never cooked it again, and never needed to, we both found lots of recipes that we liked, and had fun making them together.


End file.
